Drop ceilings, which may also be referred to as dropped ceilings, false ceilings or suspended ceilings, are well known and are available in a variety of design options. Drop ceilings typically include a suspended grid having T-shaped support members hanging from wires attached to the plenum, and panels or planks secured to the grid. The popularity of drop ceilings is due, at least in part, to the visual and acoustic benefits coupled with the simplicity and ease of installation of the system.
The most common form of drop ceilings includes light weight panels, often square or rectangular in shape, that “drop” into a supporting T-grid without additional fastening mechanisms. These types of drop ceilings provide easy access to the plenum space above the ceiling for access to HVAC equipment, wiring, plumbing, and the like. However, many customers, both residential and commercial, view these types of ceilings as unattractive. Accordingly, there has been an increasing demand for more esthetically pleasing drop ceilings that may include planks of wood or composite materials with various decorative finishes. These planks may be more esthetically pleasing, but present installation difficulties not associated with the more common drop-in panels.
Known drop ceiling systems that utilize planks often require special supporting grids in order to suspend the planks. The specialized supporting grids may render the ceiling system more expensive and/or more complicated. Alternatively, the ceiling planks may be secured directly to a conventional support grid using fasteners. However, this attachment mechanism requires the grid to have holes in it for receipt of the fasteners and installation of the ceiling system is very labor intensive.
Thus, there is a need for an improved ceiling clip for attaching planks to a T-grid supporting system that alleviates one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art.